Supporters, opponents of Erdogan clash in Washington

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said McGurk has "the full support and backing" of Trump and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

CORNISH: This afternoon, the State Department said it's communicating its concerns about what happened yesterday to the Turkish government, quote, "in the strongest possible terms".

Erdogan met US President Donald Trump at the White House for a visit that aimed to improve strained ties.

Two men were arrested at the scene, and police intend to pursue charges against others involved, the Metropolitan Police Department said in a statement on Wednesday.

"We should throw their ambassador the hell out of the United States of America".

But underneath the talk of "a new era", a deep fissure remains over the Trump administration's decision to directly arm a Kurdish rebel group in Syria that Turkey labels a terrorist organization.

A Voice of America video showed police officers struggling to protect the protesters and ordering the men in suits to retreat. In April, the US had criticized Turkish airstrikes against Kurdish militants in Syria and Iraq.

The bodyguards of Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan got into a fight with protesters in the nation's capital, and the whole thing was caught on video.

Germany says it is considering moving the roughly 270 troops deployed at Incirlik to serve with the coalition against IS if Turkey continues to block German lawmakers from visiting the base.

"The demonstrators began aggressively provoking Turkish-American citizens who had peacefully assembled to greet the President".

"The weapons provided will only be used in Raqqa and its south, they will absolutely not be used against Turkey, this will not be allowed", the minister said.

Washington and Ankara are bitterly at odds over United States support for the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) in Syria, a group that Turkey considers a front for banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) separatists.

"The conduct of Turkish security personnel earlier this week is deeply disturbing", the official said.

President Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday Turkey could not lift a state of emergency imposed in the aftermath of a failed coup last July until the country was completely calm.

USA officials said this month that the White House had approved supplying arms to the YPG, a decision that caused alarm in Ankara.

Host Joe Scarborough asked what the United States could do in response to the attack on protesters by Turkish security officials.